Final salute for state trooper Ellen Engelhardt

Inspirational, caring and loving are words friends and co-workers used to describe State trooper Ellen Engelhardt who died last week, eight years after a drunken driver crashed into her parked cruiser on a highway in Wareham.

Inspirational, caring and loving are words friends and co-workers used to describe State Trooper Ellen Engelhardt who died last week, eight years after a drunken driver crashed into her parked cruiser on a highway in Wareham.

Engelhardt’s funeral Monday, at St. Christine’s Church, brought state troopers from throughout new England and two state troopers form Texas who drove for 36 hours to be there.

Engelhardt died last week at the Middleboro Skilled Care Center. She had suffered brain damage and other injuries when a drunken college student smashed into her cruiser in a Route 25 breakdown lane in 2003.

One of the state’s first female state troopers, Engelhardt never walked or talked again following the crash. William Senne, 18, a Boston College student from Wayland at the time, was going 90 mph when he hit Engelhardt’s cruiser with her in it.

Engelhardt was determined to become a state trooper, State Police Captain Patricia Driscoll who graduated with her from the academy in 1981 said. “We all saw the sacrifices that she went through to come ot the academy. She was a single mother with a daughter 8 or 9 and she made arrangements so that she could come everyday,” said Driscoll.

She gave us inspiration. She never complained, she always had a smile on her face. Monday mornings she was always one of the first ones to show up for training, ready to go,” Driscoll said.

State Police Superintendent Col. Marian J. McGovern knew Engelhardt. “Ellen was just the type of person you gravitated to because of her kindness, her caring. She was always funloving and always had a smile. I guess if I had to sum it up, she was just vivacious. She was a vibrant woman,” McGovern said.

Troopers continue to be struck by cars while making traffic stops in highway breakdown lanes despite the state’s “move-over” law. “People need to pay attention to what they’re doing. When you get behind the wheel, the number one thing you cannot do is drink and drive, and now there are issues with distractions. People want to be on cell phones and talking or texting. They want to be doing everything but paying attention to driving,” McGovern said.

Senne pleaded guilty in January 2005 to drunken driving and driving to endanger. He was sentence to 2½ years in the Plymouth County House of Correction, placed on probation for five years and ordered to perform 500 hours of community work service. He was released in 2007.

So far, he faces no additional charges as the result of Engelhardt’s death.

Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, said the matter is still under review by prosecutors.

Engelhardt became the 32nd member of the Massachusetts State Police to die in the line of duty since the department was founded as a state constabulary in 1865.